Let’s start with the OG: Snugger, a legendary, circa 1947 wooden shoe boat with a canvas top. It looked a bit like a clog (yes, the footwear) and had a similar following too: it probably wasn’t for everyone, but those who loved it were fans for life.
Snugger’s biggest fan is Cottage Life founder Al Zikovitz, who bought the boat about 20 years ago. “The first time I put it in the water, it sank immediately,” he recalls. “So I made a system where, each spring, I’d launch it at the beach. I’d tip it on its side, fill it with water to expand the wood, wait a bit, and then pump it out. Then I’d do the other side.” He eventually realized he’d get the same results if he flooded it from the inside, and so he bought a perforated garden hose for that purpose. The whole rigmarole proved what’s true for all classic craft. “It’s not a practical boat,” says Al, “but taking care of it was part of the joy of having it.”
And enjoy it he did. The first time I saw him behind the wheel was at our annual “Cottage Life Weekend” at his Haliburton, Ont.-area cottage. Al and his wife, Wendela, often hosted the CL staff for a few days each year. I recall coming down the stairs to the dock just as he was pushing off from shore, embarking on a lake tour with a few staffers on board. He was in his element: cigar on the go, laughs barrelling, smile as wide as the horizon, the late-afternoon light sparkling off the water like a thousand Tinker Bells. The party was on the dock, but the fun was in the boat, anyone could see. Perhaps that had less to do with Snugger than with its captain; being around Al commanding his ship was like being around a newly licensed teenager taking his buddies for a ride in his father’s convertible. Al has always loved sharing his good fortune with those around him, and somehow, our good fortune always ended up exceeding his.
Like all of the boats in this story, each one submitted by our readers, Snugger is a star on the lake. “Everybody waves to you when you’re in it,” says Al. “It feels good that other people like to see it.” We loved seeing all of your strange watercraft on the pages that follow too. They’re a mix of pretty and practical, fantastic and functional, but each one is unique and beloved—quirks and all. Let them serve as proof that, although you own the boat, sometimes the boat owns you.—Michelle Kelly
COURTESY MIKE ZIKOVITZ
Can I rent out my boat?
For as long as he can remember, Owen Wensley says there’s been a photo on the wall of his grandmother’s Kahshe Lake, Ont., cottage showing his (then six-year-old) father “cleaning” the windshield of his grandfather’s 1959 Shepherd Runabout with a croquet mallet. It’s this photo, 25-year-old Owen says, that sparked his family’s mission to find the same model and reintroduce it to the lake as a tribute to Owen’s great-grandfather, Lorn Josey. In 2014, after a year of scouring ads online, Owen’s father, Dan, eventually found one near Guelph, Ont. The seller had it listed for $10,000. “It was the same make and model. The only difference was that my great-grandfather’s boat had cedar strip panelling on the inside,” says Owen. It didn’t have an engine and still had cable steering, which they knew they’d have to replace with hydraulic steering to make it easier to drive, but they bought it anyway.
The boat sat in the shed at Owen’s family cottage (also on Kahshe Lake) until 2023, when Owen and his Uncle Drew devised a plan to surprise his father. That spring, the pair took the boat and had a 75-hp Mercury outboard and hydraulic steering installed. Then, on the afternoon of Owen’s dad’s 55th birthday in August, Owen’s uncle and aunt drove the upgraded craft back over to the cottage. “My dad was standing on the dock when they came around the corner and he goes, ‘That’s grandpa’s boat,’ ” says Owen. “He didn’t quite get it, even though it was coming right at him. Seeing it running again made him tear up.” Owen says driving the 17-foot-long boat is a dream: “It gets up on a plane perfectly and it just flies.” They use any excuse to drive it, he says, as long as the conditions are fair. “It’s a bit of a princess so if it’s too choppy, we’ll take something else.” When they do take it out for a sunset cruise, it’s always an attention-grabber. “We get a lot of waves and honks,” says Owen. “Other cottagers recognize it as grandpa’s boat, too, which is cool.”—Bob Sexton
COURTESY OWEN WENSLEY
15 everyday phrases that you didn’t know came from boating
If you’re thinking this boat looks like a sports car sans wheels, you’re not wrong. Built by Correct Craft in 1967, this candy-apple-red, fibreglass ski boat—co- branded with the Ford Motor Company—looks like a Mustang, right down to the gauges, chrome horse logo, and the nameplate on the dash. Nevil Knupp, an avid waterskier and Crystal Lake, Ont., cottager, says he has long been a fan of Correct Craft’s Ski Nautique line. So when he and his wife, Abby, found this pristine Mustang for sale for $6,000 USD on a fan website in 2019, they jumped on it. That fall, they drove to Indiana to pick it up after putting down a $2,000 deposit. There was just one problem: when they tried to complete the final credit card transaction upon arrival, it wouldn’t go through. “The card had expired, and we didn’t have the new one,” says Nevil. “So we drove around with the owners hitting every ATM we could find, taking out the maximum withdrawal amounts until we had the $4,000 we still owed. We felt like criminals, like Thelma and Louise or something.”
At 16 feet long, the craft—dubbed Mustang Sally by Abby—isn’t very big, but it boasts a massive Ford 302, V8 engine. Built for power, the boat has a three-blade prop that’s tailor-made to pull skiers up. Nevil says the boat isn’t particularly speedy, “It’ll go around 65 kilometres per hour,” which is comparable to what any modern ski boat can do. No matter: Nevil says they bought the craft for leisure anyway. “It’s the go-to boat when you want to have a lark.” Clearly, the boat makes an impression wherever it goes. On its trip north from Indiana, Nevil noticed the border guards spent more time ogling the boat than filling out the paperwork. “People wonder, What the heck is that thing? It looks new. Wait a minute, it’s a 1967?” he says. “It’s a real head-turner.”—B.S.
COURTESY NEVIL KNUPP
This DIY fishing boat cost under $500 to make
You might say Bernie Giesler was born to own this sturdy little 16-foot-long cedarstrip boat. Why? He’s the
grandson of the man who founded the boatworks that built it. Indeed, the Giesler family name has been synonymous with wooden boat manufacturing in Powassan, Ont.—and parts beyond—since his grandfather, Barney, founded B. Giesler and Sons Boat Builders in 1921. An accomplished (and now retired) auto mechanic who ran his own repair shop in Powassan, Bernie says he asked his cousin, Gerry, the current manager of Giesler Boats, if he had any spare craft lying around the boatyard. “I don’t remember whether I paid him for the boat, but if I did, it must have been pretty cheap for me not to remember,” says Bernie. Officially named a French River, and built in 1984, it’s one of 19 models of cedarstrip canoes and boats still being made by the family-run company today.
Bernie towed it out to his cottage, located on Giesler Island in the southeastern-most bay of Lake Nipissing, Ont., in the spring of 2018 and began restoring it. The boat was structurally sound, but its finish was badly weathered. “I flipped it over, scraped it down, and painted the hull,” says Bernie. “I used marine paint tinted to match my cottage colours, mahogany and white.” Next, Bernie tackled the inside, building a well at the transom and installing a centre deck. “I like the smoothness of the ride with a centre deck because you’re driving from further back,” he explains. The finishing touch though, according to Bernie, was the addition of twin 1955, 25-hp, electric-start Johnson outboards that he also rebuilt himself. “I just love twin motors,” says Bernie. “When you throttle up and get them running at the same RPM, they create a certain drone. It’s music.” He used the boat for a summer, then ended up selling it to a truck driver from the Sudbury, Ont., area. “It’s always sad to sell something that you put a lot of heart and soul into,” says Bernie. “But to be honest, I have more fun putting projects together than actually using them.”—B.S.
COURTESY BERNIE GIESLER
This story originally appeared in our Mar/Apr ’25 issue.
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